Slav !

[Hagan/Currie10]

The reason that Slav will achieve long term success that the previous manager could not is that Slav's bond and commitment is with the football club as opposed to the players !

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

I’m sure that was Wilders downfall

 

[vas borbokis]

I hope you're right obviously, but there's absolutely no need to have a go at Wilder, who has put our club in a position where it can attract a manager like Slav & hopefully back him!
Do you think Slav would have been remotely interested in managing us when we were struggling for years in league 1 with zero funds?
I think not. Wilder moved us upwards hugely!

 

[1987]

If slav has half the success Wilder had we will do well. Remember, the only reason we can even attract a manager like Slav and be somehow fancied to go up from the championship is because of that success.

Hate threads like this tbh. Its not always a competition.

 

[Sheffsteel]

The reason that Slav will achieve long term success that the previous manager could not is that Slav's bond and commitment is with the football club as opposed to the players !

Interesting theory.]

You’ve probably right regards Wilder being player focussed where as Slav is more club focussed
but it’s possibly a lot to do with management style and culture.

Wilders is used to working on a shoe string budget with low quality players
so his success was due to putting his heart into the job
showing commitment and loyalty to the players and hoping this would motivate players to give it back.

Whereas Slav is used to working with higher quality players
He seems to be cooler and more distant regards the players, they either perform or they’re disposable.

Personally I prefer to work for a manager who can also be one of the lads, like Chris Wilder
but both management styles can work well.
Think we need to wait and see before predicting Slav can achieve even half as much as Wilder.

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

I’m sure Wilder’s bond with the club is as great as anyone on here.

He got it wrong at the end, that can’t be argued. Can’t blame him too much, but the overriding feeling I get is he thought he was bigger than the club. He wasn’t.

Not sure about Slav yet. I don’t doubt he’s a good manager, and I hope he’ll prove to be a great one for United. It’s surprised me how he’s turned United around this last few games. Identified good players to come in and so far every single one has looked a great signing, the only worry being those on loan who aren’t our players and probably will go back to their parent clubs.

But what I do like about him is how he seems to have got players like Brewster and McBurnie playing well. They weren’t before and I’m hoping it won’t be long before they both start banging the goals in.

Tbh though I just don’t see that happening.

.. then there’s Norwood, Fleck and Berge who seem to have improved no end since his arrival. That‘s down to Slav.

Combination of coaching and competition.

Overall I think Slav will do it though.

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

He has a bond with the football club?
No one will recreate the bond the previous manager had with the fans and the club, it’s daft to aspire to have it with Slav.
It was very special and I can’t see it happening again unless we drop down the leagues and someone like Billy takes us all the way through. It was lightening in a bottle, a one off, and we should be grateful that we were here to witness it.
Of course that doesn’t mean Slav can’t be a huge success and be here for a fair few years playing awesome football, but it won’t be quite the same.

 

[CrookesBlade]

Overthinking it.

Wilder and the board fell out over transfer policy and the end result was a squad not good enough to compete in the Premier League. That’s it.

 

[McGoaldrick]

Wilder was fantastic, but after a certain point I began to cringe when he would talk down about the players calling them league one standard etc. Very reassuring and refreshing to see slav trying to raise confidence and put trust in them. Motivate them not by slagging them off but by bringing in serious competition for places, something I think we failed to do at times

 

[jono_t2000]

I think what the OP was trying to suggest is that Wilder success was because he was a great at man management. Whereas slav is probably more refined and experienced at the overall management picture.

Man managers tend to do extremely well until they don't and then things can turn pear shape pretty fast.

 

[Upton_Blade]

Really couldn't give a fuck what connection the manager has with the fans!

I loved CW as he gave me some of the most enjoyable and entertaining years I've ever witnessed following The Blades. The fact he was "one of our own" was a bonus.

Likewise I really don't give a shit if Slav doesn't approach the fans and start slapping the badge after every win. If he keeps improving us, gets us playing nice attacking football and moving nicely up the table then he'll do for me!

 

[DronnieBlade]

Knows .

.

UTB

 

[Chingo]

Wilder thought he had the prince over a barrel where if he said jump the prince would jump , when he saw the prince wasn’t jumping the toys came out of the pram and he started with the sly digs at the club … which maybe is a reason he is still without a club today !

 

[Chingo]

 

[bongleblade]

He'll end up Wrexham manager i reckon

 

[Sheff de party]

Cost us promotion last season by unnecessarily trying to stamp a new philosophy and formation on a team more than capable of going up. He put us at risk, depending on how much you believe some of the reports, then will have left with a hefty payout.

And he did it all whilst claiming the board weren’t backing him.

Good riddance.

 

[crazyblade1889]

We would have been so much better prepared for a Premier league campaign had Slav still been in charge, even though it might have taken a bit longer to get there.
A transition from Wilder-ball was always going to take a bit of time but you could see what he wanted to do. Play a focal point striker (Sharp) with young hungry midfielders (Ndiaye, Gibbs-White) and move to a back 4. This would have served us a lot better this season! His biggest criticism was that he didn’t want to play a back 5 with overlapping CBs. You could see in his signings that he would have transformed the club - Gibbs-White/trying for Alex Collardo and Yann Karamoh given time. Unfortunately we couldn’t wait to get back to wilder-ball

 

[Bladesthorpe]

If we're going down this road is there any chance of digging John Harris up.

 

[HuddersfieldBlade]

If we're going down this road is there any chance of digging John Harris up.

Get Ernest Needham back in team.

 

[wak1889]

If we had invested properly in 1901 we could be where man city are now , no vision at the club

 

[SwissBlade]

We would have been so much better prepared for a Premier league campaign had Slav still been in charge, even though it might have taken a bit longer to get there.
A transition from Wilder-ball was always going to take a bit of time but you could see what he wanted to do. Play a focal point striker (Sharp) with young hungry midfielders (Ndiaye, Gibbs-White) and move to a back 4. This would have served us a lot better this season! His biggest criticism was that he didn’t want to play a back 5 with overlapping CBs. You could see in his signings that he would have transformed the club - Gibbs-White/trying for Alex Collardo and Yann Karamoh given time. Unfortunately we couldn’t wait to get back to wilder-ball

In fairness, Slav managed to get us mentally prepared for big defeats at the likes of West Brom.

We'd be in admin now if Slav was still in charge. Changing to Hecky was the right move at the time

 

[Bladesman]

The squad needed an overhaul to play the formation he wanted.

He needed wingers and we didn’t sign them.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

I think we could argue if we went with Hecky we would have gone up and while we wouldn't be financially set we would certainly have a younger set of key players with more time on their contract including Berge and ndayie. The slav detour was something most of us agreed with but in hindsight was a mistake.

The squad needed an overhaul to play the formation he wanted.

He needed wingers and we didn’t sign them.

Quite why both parties, the club and Slav, joined together when we weren't going to spend and the squad and his style weren't a good fit I don't know. Weirdly he returned to 5 3 2 just before getting sacked

 

[HarryHaslam]

If you remember his two games prior to sacking we won and drew those two games. In those two games he bit the bullet and went back to Wilders formation. But the decision had already been made to sack him so it was too little too late for him. I do wonder though if we had kept him would it have eventually worked out for him, Hecky carried on that formation and it worked out, if Slav had carried on with that change in formation would he have got the results that could have bought him the much needed time to get his own players in and gradually move it back to his own tactics and formation. We will never know but I’ve often wondered if he should have got a little more time to build his own team and style.

 

[Nagima]

Every new system of play is effective for 3-4 seasons. After that time most teams figure out how to nullify it and others develop another new system. Wilder ball worked even in the PL as the team was well drilled and comfortable in taking risks. The movement of wingbacks and midfielders was unpredictable to the opposition with Enda and George often cutting in from the wings. Lundstram Fleck getting into the box from either side.

Our second season in PL is where teams adjusted effectively to counter our style. When defending they just dropped off kept players in the middle and left us go tippy tappy up the wings and eventually they recovered possession.
They then transitioned quickly to the wings and then to midfielders and forwards running straight into the box.

We got away with it in the championship last 2 seasons. But we were dependent on MGW and N'Diaye to create something. Even last season we were winning games inspite of how poor we implemented a game plan. Wilderball lite you could call it.

The transition away from Wilderball didn't go well. Not because Slav got it wrong but more the transition needed more time and some new players. Some wingers and new midfielders which didn't happen. Plenty of fans were saying that x y z etc could only play in a 352 formation. I don't buy that. Every professional player to this point in their careers has player 442 or 433.

Now we have the perfect storm of bad recruitment, poor team cohesion, injuries and an inability of Hecky and Wilder to tactically adjust effectively in the PL.

 

[SUFCinks]

Slav would’ve taken time and money but in terms of transforming the clubs footballing culture and philosophy i think long-term we would’ve benefited from it.

We would’ve built a much more technical team that would be more suited to long term success at the top level.

We would also attract better players as they would be joining a club that kept the ball more and preferred to attack. Lets be honest, who wants to join a team that can’t hold the ball and parks the bus most weeks, I think this is one of the main reasons why Ndiaye and Berge left.

It’s frustrating he didn’t get longer to see if he could turn things around, one thing is clear though. The players we had/have just didn’t suit a possession based, attacking system like slavs. For that you need much more composed and technically gifted players. Something that seems to be low down on our list of priorities when making signings.

The modern game is moving in a direction that I don’t see us following. The type of football Slav plays is more aligned to the modern game than where we are sadly.

 

[shorehamview]

We needed evolution, we got revolution. Evolution is evolving, Slav’s revolution was revolting.

 

[nopigfansintown]

A good manager gets the best out of the players at his disposal. They build the formation around the players, they don't shoehorn them.He left crying in his interviews for eight or nine new players . Up there with Robson as the biggest fraud to manage us. Any manager could won promotion with that Fulham or Watford squad. You look behind that and it's easy to see the emperor had no clothes.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Rule 1: All previous players and managers are better than current players and manager.
Rule 2: All players and managers who have never been involved with our first team are better than our current players and manager.
Exceptions: Hammond, Brian Robson, all current employees at Hillsborough, etc.